Yeah, we've been taking about it a bit in my vaguely-named anime thread. I'm probably going to watch it, because I adored Diebuster, but I adored Diebuster entirely in spite of the gratuitous and embarrassingly indulgent fanservice. I get the feeling KlK is going to be the same way.

I think Gainax thinks it's charming or something? It's annoying.

Regardless, Mako looks adorable and amazing, and I hear good things, so yeah. You take the good with the mortifying, I guess.

The entire plot revolves around special clothes and the amount of skin coverage is actually a specific plot point, so I dunno. Nothing's struck me as gratuitous here. It's like a subversion of fanservice.

you know, if someone had just told me from the start that this was Tengan Toppa Revolutionary Gurren Utena, the entire world would have been destroyed by the force of my finger clicking "download", so good thing you guys let me figure that out on my own

seriously only three episodes in and this is already the best mash up of My Literal Favorite Things since that time i figured out you could have buffalo sauce on a pizza

I was interested, and then I saw it was picked up by Aniplex. I have no interest in getting attatched to an anime where my only option is one of two boxsets, both overpriced by several hundred dollars.

It's mostly Utena-esque in that Honnouji Academy strikes me as very much the hyperactive Gainax mirror image of Ohtori Academy from Utena. It's a sprawling, insane campus ruled by fucked up extra-powerful student council members. The more Utena goes on, the more the school itself seems like a bizarre living thing with its own agenda, leading up to the movie version having the castle of revolution literally turn into a giant fucking monster truck to keep Utena (also turned into a car) and Anthy from escaping the school, and whether or not that's even remotely anything like Kill la Kill, it gives me a pretty strong vibe along those lines. Also Mako is basically Wakaba. Just all viewed through an over the top Gurren Lagann / Diebuster lens. Basically my favorite thing about anime is the way they set up their world building, most of the time. Of the series I'd consider my favorites, almost all of them do something interesting or unique with the setting they're working in rather than it just being the literal backdrop for everything else.

That being said; Episode 1. Totally dig the immediate Ohtori Academy / Riki-oh Prison vibe. The initial history lesson about Hitler makes it hard to tell if this is going to be A Thing, but at least puts you in the mindset that hey, history and the world might actually play into what's going on here on a world-building level, which given that the next time her teacher is teaching it's More Hitler and the militaristic superpowered uniforms, maybe we're going for a whole Nazis Won thing. The visual motifs on the uniforms are stylish as hell. The fanservice excuse is completely ridiculous, but I don't mind anime fanservice one way or another. Rape joke count: 1?

Episode 2. Going back to explain what actually happened down in the basement seems like a case of We Already Figured That Out, Anime, But Thanks. Oh hey, she got that wrist-cutting glove thing that made me only know this anime as something that Kotaku called THE WRIST-SLICING GLORIFYING ANIME or something? Kotaku is dumb. The time spent on the set-up means the tennis match battle felt almost entirely perfunctory, or at least not nearly enough time to enjoy how fucking great the tennis club captain's design is (even if Viral wants his teeth back).

Episode 3. Oh, so we're going to get more into Satsuki's situation sooner rather than later; that's pretty good. Make the villain a protagonist in their own story, etc etc. I guess this is what people meant by skin covering actually being a plot point when I HAVE TO BE COMPLETELY NAKED becomes the new BELIEVE IN THE ME WHO BELIEVES IN YOU mantra. The exhibitionist / shaming thing continues to be Oh, Anime and I'm not sure if it will ever go anywhere that isn't an excuse for a sling-bikini seifuku Gundam. Maybe this is metacommentary on whether or not we should be ashamed to show people anime ever. The fights in this show are pretty kinetic! It's the third episode, so it's time for the show to actually make its statement of purpose by the end of it: let's monster club of the week.

Episode 4. I fucking love ridiculous obstacle courses and completely inept villains who fool no one except the main cast. A+. The entire concept behind this episode is beautiful, and makes me super glad that they're using their setting to just go hog-wild with shit like turning the walk to school into Deathrace 2000. Grandmas with RPGs. A++.